Smoke, carbon monoxide, and other detection systems are routinely used in residential homes, commercial buildings, and other structures. These detection systems routinely include sensors, such as smoke or carbon monoxide detectors, distributed throughout a structure. The sensors operate to detect smoke, carbon monoxide, or other materials or conditions. The sensors are often coupled to a controller. Based on the signals received from the sensors, the controller determines if and when to activate an alarm (such as an audible alarm), notify appropriate personnel (such as a fire department or an alarm monitoring company), or activate a fire-suppression or other system (such as a sprinkler system).
Each of the sensors distributed in a residential, commercial, or other structure typically contains sensing components used to detect smoke, carbon monoxide, or other materials or conditions. This may allow the controller to determine the location of a problem reported by one or more of the sensors. Various techniques are known for identifying the location of an object. For example, radar cross-section (RCS) describes the extent to which an object reflects an incident electromagnetic wave. It is a measure of the strength of the radar signal backscattered from a “target” object for a given incident wave power.